The proposed study would seek data from 135 women, now in their early 40s, who were previously studied as seniors in a women's college and again five years after their graduation. At that time the focus was on creativity; women with creative potential are well represented in the sample. The sample as a whole represents a cohort of considerable interest. Most of the women soon became wives and mothers, but as they neared age 30, the zeitgeist was strongly encouraging fewer children and a higher-level participation of women in work. In the proposed study, questionnaires and inventories would be obtained by mail, and a subset of the sample would be interviewed. Life patterns (based on events and commitments from 22-42) would be classified and related to subjective experience and to characteristics of personality and environment over time. New and repeat data from the retirement age parents of the women would be included. Data would be analyzed by means of flow charts and a variety of multivariate techniques. A stage-state model conceives the life course as a series of personality-by-situation interactions. The nature of the sample supports three important foci: the transitions of young adult mothers to a life outside the family and their development in this wider life; the careers of women who showed creative potential in college; and how characteristics of parents and relationships with parents are associated with women's life patterns.